<?php
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$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Finding a balance',
	'takedown' => '2017-11-01',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<p>
	Current countdowns:
</p>
<ul>
	<li>4 unfinished weblog entries in <a href="/en/weblog/2016/07-July/">July</a></li>
	<li>11 days until my old domain registrar can no longer counter my charge dispute</li>
</ul>
<p>
	Once we get moved and I find a job, I&apos;m going to have to quickly find a way to balance my coursework and my employment.
	I&apos;ve decided that the best way to prepare for this is to practice by attempting to balance coursework with another project that can be put down once employment becomes an option.
	I&apos;m going to attempt to get my schoolwork done as early in the week as I can manage, then work on something else for the rest of the week.
	I might even take breaks from schoolwork when I can&apos;t seem to keep on task any longer.
	My first projects will likely be an overhaul of this website, as the past year and a half have created quite a mess in its code, and the completion of the remaining missing journal entries.
	Part of the code cleanup will involve fixing up all my old journal page subtitles that aren&apos;t properly formatted and adding code that detects which navigation menus should be present on a given page based on its $a[URI] instead of having that information specified in the code of each individual page like it currently is.
	I&apos;d also like to automate the generation of weblog page subtitles, as they follow a very simple pattern and specifying these subtitles in the page code itself is a bit messy and prone to error.
</p>
<p>
	I started watching <a href="https://fod.infobase.com/p_ViewPlaylist.aspx?AssignmentID=6XNASS"><span title="Globalization">POLS 1503</span>&apos;s videos of the week</a>, but the usual glitches with that site are manifesting themselves strangely this week.
	While the full set of videos is supposed to run under an hour, the actual run length is quite a bit longer, and at least one of the videos is a repeat from a previous week.
	I can&apos;t even be sure that the correct videos are being shown, and right now, I just don&apos;t have the patience for it.
	Instead, I stopped the videos after about twenty minutes, and got to work on the reading assignment, then wrote up my discussion post.
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
	Because Samir Moussa was exposed to so many cultures from a young age, they&apos;ve experienced a wide range of different views and ideas.
	They&apos;ve even learned four different languages! They&apos;ve seen that despite language barriers, people everywhere have similar things to say.
	Seeing war-ravaged Lebanon showed them just how real war and poverty are as well.
</p>
<p>
	Samir Moussa has met people that are caught between local traditions and the globalization that threatens their old way of life.
	Because of Samir&apos;s fluency in several languages, they were able to help Don Candido Morales Morales tell the story of  Don Candido struggles in preserving their traditions.
	Knowledge and science from indigenous people is also being lost as western science becomes more widespread.
	While the sciences should become integrated and build off one another, instead, knowledge is being lost.
	A lot of this probably stems from the fact that western science is newer, and can thus be patented and sold for a higher profit.
	The western business model is trampling on indigenous knowledge because those that have indigenous knowledge don&apos;t have a means to spread it and those with a means to spread it profit from instead wiping it out.
</p>
<p>
	Some people fear that when cultures become mixed, they are destroyed.
	For example, media from around the globe is available to most people, and as people watch, listen to, and read these media publications from other cultures, they bring a part of these other cultures home.
	These other cultures begin to shape their own culture.
	In my opinion though, this is a very backwards way of looking at it.
	The best parts of separate cultures are preserved on a global scale, while less beneficial aspects of individual cultures are replaced with pieces from other cultures.
	In this way, we are forming a better and more global culture.
</p>
<p>
	Money can play a large role in culture though.
	In some cultures, farmers have been able to make a living selling their goods at the same prices that they&apos;ve been selling them for decades.
	However, integration with the global market has exposed these farmers&apos; former customers other dealers that are able to undercut the prices that local farmers have been charging.
	Is this a bad thing? It&apos;s hard to say, but it certainly means that these local farmers are going to have to give up what they&apos;ve known and find a new way of life.
</p>
<p>
	Unfortunately, businesses from the United States have a lot more influence and power than businesses from many other places, and as a result, United States culture is having an undue influence on the development of world culture.
	Some countries such as France have tried to fight this problem by only allowing a limited amount of foreign culture media into the country, but this is nothing short of censorship.
	The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia goes even further, censoring everything western, including the Internet.
	Censorship isn&apos;t positive in any way, and while it&apos;s not United States businesses causing it directly, the heavy influence of United States businesses is indirectly leading to censorship in countries such as France.
</p>
<p>
	Another struggle faced by those trying to keep cultures separate is that of minimizing the effect of other languages.
	Governments in countries such as France are attempting to keep English loan words out of the public&apos;s vocabulary.
	China is requiring businesses that operate within their borders to do business under &quot;Chinese-sounding&quot; names.
	Also, although the United States has no official language, some groups within the country are trying to prevent non-English languages from becoming popular.
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
	Additionally, I really wanted to finish two essays, but had a bad headache.
	I was about ready to start on the first essay anyway when Vanessa and our mother arrived home.
	Vanessa had suggested to our mother that my mother and I go out to dinner tonight.
	I have no idea why Vanessa suggested that, but my mother asked if it was a bad time, and really, I wouldn&apos;t have been as productive in my current state as I hopefully would be later, so I decided to go tonight.
	By the time that we got home, there wasn&apos;t time to finish both essays, and for some reason, I want to get both of them finished on the same day.
	I probably should have worked on other homework when we got back, but it&apos;s early in the week and I could afford to spend half a day resting and trying to feel better.
</p>
END
);
